Accounting, Health Care Contain Future of Employment

---

Author(s): Meg Richards, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

If you want to see the future, check out the classifieds.

The help-wanted section of your local newspaper offers a snapshot of today's labor market and a glimpse of the hot jobs of tomorrow. As the baby boomers - born between 1946 and 1964 - amble into retirement, employers will be racing to fill the positions they vacate and to provide for the needs of America's fast-graying population.

During the next decade, the greatest need for higher skilled workers will be in health care, education, accounting and computer services, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Those trends can already be seen in today's job market, said Steve Pogorzelski, group president, international, for Monster Worldwide, operator of the job search site Monster.com.

"Over the next three years, there are three areas we'll see in high demand: accounting and auditing, health care and Internet technology," Pogorzelski said. Right now, "it doesn't seem the occupational trends can keep up with demand."

The demand for accounting and auditing is driven mostly by two things: corporate compliance with tougher financial regulations and baby boomers' demand for retirement services, he said.

Despite worries that outsourcing would reduce the number of U.S.- based technology jobs, there continues to be strong growth in that field as well, according to the Monster employment index, which measures online job postings and availability on 1,500 Web sites each month. Demand is greatest for workers in databases, security, privacy and new media, Pogorzelksi said.

Many government jobs - from postal employees to police officers - are dominated by baby boomers, who will start turning 65 in 2011. Shortages also are projected among transportation workers, from airline pilots to truck drivers, and among some of the traditional skilled trade professions, such as plumbers, carpenters and mechanics.

Health care, projected to be the fastest-growing area in the next decade, also is seeing skill shortages in many positions, including registered nurses, respiratory therapists and occupational therapists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a growing need for lower-skilled health care jobs, including assistant nurses, home health aides and other technicians, who may assume duties once performed by more highly paid workers as employers try to cut health care costs.

Overall, the bureau projects growth of 30.3 percent in the health care profession through 2014, or 4.7 million new jobs. That means one out of every five new jobs will be in health care. The numbers "are almost hard to comprehend," said Dennis V. Damp, author of "Health Care Job Explosion," first published in 1995 and appearing in its fourth edition in May.

The number of Americans older than age 65 is expected to grow to 40.2 million by 2010 and to 71.5 million by 2030.

Meg Richards, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

© Copyright 2007 NetContent, Inc. Duplication and distribution restricted.